All Articles

Cinco de Mayo is not, as many Americans assume, Mexico’s Independence Day. It’s not even an important holiday south of the border. Instead, its modern roots can be traced to Mexican-Americans in the 1960s and the opportunism of wily beer distributors.

Why does our belief in the ability of drugs to enhance the achievements of artists stop with artists? Isn’t reaching new physical heights just as inspiring as a lyric that tells us some truth creatively?

Some beggars in India have chosen to take issues into their own hands and have started the first bank in their country run by beggars for beggars.

“To do successful research, you don’t need to know everything; you just need to know one thing that isn’t known.”

What will historians say about our time 250 years from now? Lawrence Summers asks this question in a thought-provoking lecture about the evolution of ideas.

The Amazon founder’s space tourism company launched a surprise test flight last week, reaching 307,000 feet (93,574 meters) with its New Shepard space vehicle.

Two minutes of walking for every hour of sitting can lower your risk of dying by 33 percent.

Words of wisdom from the Wizard of Menlo Park: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

A study reveals that most teens believe they won’t be victims of cyberbullying — it’s something that happens to other people.

Many issues stand against a mission to Mars: fuel, landing, and sustaining life on the red planet are just a few. But scientists say that the astronauts that depart will not be the same — the structure of their brains will change.

See as far back in the Universe as our greatest telescope’s eyes will take us. “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. […]

Researchers are working on a method to transform every blood type into O — the universal-donor blood type.

If winter is coming, this epic artwork is the spring thaw. “When I was a kid, my world was five streets long. I never got away, except in books. I […]

Children may know the words for seconds and hours as early as two, but understanding how long two minutes are versus one hour comes with experience.

So-called structured procrastination could help you be as productive as your go-getter peers.

Excavators in Nepal will have access to a smartphone app to allow them to share images and documentation of salvaged artifacts. 

Call it the psychology of the job search: The typeface you choose for your résumé communicates much more to the hiring manager than you’d think.

A British academic’s remarks that “it’s inevitable that students will be allowed to use the Internet in exams” sparks a debate over the purpose of testing and the encouragement of learning.

We all want to be financially stable and enjoy a well-funded retirement, but we don’t want to squander our hard-earned money on poor investments.

Older people, 65 and older, are the most likely to reap the benefits of smartphone technology. 

The power (and peril) of habit.

As predicted, last night Elon Musk introduced a suite of Tesla batteries for homes and businesses. The technology is exciting now; it could be a game changer in the future.

Can failed stars, or stellar corpses, give light to the Universe once again? “A single tiny light creates a space where darkness cannot exist. The light vanquishes the darkness. Try […]

Last week’s events in Nepal and Baltimore were drastically different. Yet how people responded to two tragedies offer insight into how we deal with trauma and how we decide to offer compassion. 

Researchers have found that the earthquake has taken an inch from the iconic Mount Everest.

Yale Professor Jeffrey Brenzel argues that reading the great classics can not only enrich your education, but also actually make your life better.

Two prominent economists have called for the institution of a worldwide economic-development plan modeled after the post-WWII European Recovery Program. They argue that helping poor countries industrialize is the best way to achieve lasting peace.

The social justice pope spoke out this week on two hot topics. On Tuesday, he held a climate change summit. On Wednesday, he called the gender pay gap a “scandal.”

Something like social contracts likely run deep in our nature. As does the “economic justice” they need. The largest database we have on hunter-gatherer cultures suggests our ancestors had rigidly egalitarian tendencies 10,000 generations ago. 

Can a running start really improve your driving distance in golf? “What a shot by Happy Gilmore! <aside> Who the hell is Happy Gilmore?”–Announcer, from Happy Gilmore As I prepare […]